My New Crush Gave to Me by Shani Petroff Review

 Hello Everyone :)

I pray today finds you all doing well, and I want to thank you all for joining me for another book review here on The Preppy Book Princess.

I'm one of those crazy readers who loves to read Christmas reads year round, especially if I'm having a particularly hard week as I always find them kind of soothing and uplifting.

However, there's always something extra special about getting to read Christmas stories during the months of November and December, as they feel extra festive and atmospheric. 

I'm often lamented the fact in the past that there isn't a lot of young adult Christmas reads. I've read and enjoyed a few over the years, but every time I stumble upon a new one that sounds pretty clean, I'm always excited to dive right into it.

Today I can't wait to share with you all about one I recently had the opportunity to read.

Keep reading below for my full review.

My New Crush Gave to Me by Shani Petroff:

Source: Library

Publisher: Swoon Reads

Publication Date: October 31st, 2017

Genre: Young Adult Fiction/Contemporary/Christmas Themed

Synopsis:

Charlotte Charlie Donovan knows exactly what she wants for Christmas: Teo Ortiz. He's the school's star athlete, in the National Honor Society, invited to every party, contributes to the school paper (where Charlie is co-editor), and is about to be featured as One to Watch in a teen magazine basically, he's exactly the type of guy Charlie s meant to be with. The only problem he barely knows she exists.

But Charlie is determined to be Teo's date to the Christmas ball. And she has a plan: To rig the paper's Secret Santa so that she can win his heart with five perfect gifts. But to do that she needs help. Enter J.D. Ortiz Teo s cousin, and possibly the most annoying person on the planet. He's easy going, laid back, unorganized, spontaneous, and makes a joke out of everything the exact opposite of Charlie (and Teo). But he's willing to provide insight into what Teo wants, so she s stuck with him.

Yet, the more time Charlie spends with J.D., the more she starts to wonder: Does she really know what, or rather who, she wants for Christmas? 

(synopsis from goodreads)

My Review:

I thought the synopsis of this one sounded slightly predictable, but also downright adorable. I usually enjoy the enemies to something more trope, and it definitely pulled me into this one.

The story was charming and sweet, and definitely gave me a case of the warm fuzzies. It was basically like reading a made for TV Christmas movie with young adult characters as the cast. I personally really enjoyed the friendship that develops between Charlie and J.D., and how they both begin to realize that there's much more to the other than they had thought at the beginning.

I also enjoyed the fact that the love triangle wasn't written as typically as I was expecting, and that was honestly a nice change. Perhaps one of my favorite parts of all was the beautiful friendship that exists between Charlie and her best friend Morgan, and I loved how they go to such lengths to encourage each other no matter the occasion.

This was cute and swoon worthy, and one I really ended up enjoying. My only complaints were the fact that Charlie's character is pretty annoying for the first half or so of the book, it's written a little more juvenile than I thought was necessary, and I would have loved to have gotten more of the backstory as to why it's only always been Charlie and her mom.

Overall, a cute, Christmas themed read that had many original components, and a plethora cast of likeable secondary characters. I appreciated that it was fairly squeaky clean with only a couple of minor content issues. 

Final Rating: 3/5.

We need more young adult Christmas books like this one!

Thanks so much for reading guys! Have a great rest of your day :)

This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The photo does not belong to me, and all rights to the respective owners.